Michael Swickard's new novel about New Mexico

NewsNM: Swickard - I have a constitutional right to travel and I have a legal ID from New Mexico which serves in all 50 states as a drivers license. Guess it is time for the courts to slap down the federal government. From KOB-TV.com - By: Joseph Lynch - The strict rules designed to keep terrorists off planes may soon be keeping New Mexicans off them as well. If changes aren't made, come next month you won't be able to use your New Mexico driver's license as I.D. at the airport. Joe Metcalf hated the idea. "To not be able to use a state issued I.D. is ridiculous," he said.

You might not like it or be ready for it, but starting January 15 your New Mexico I.D. or driver's license won't be good enough to get you through the TSA checkpoint at the airport. It won't affect frequent traveler Austin Colbert, but it will affect many others. "I already have a passport and I have a government I.D. that can work. I think it sucks that people have to get a passport to travel," Colbert said.
The Department of Homeland Security said the reason it won't take NM state I.D.'s or licenses at the checkpoints is because New Mexico gives them to people without documented proof of citizenship. Doug Roger was just visiting New Mexico but hated the idea. "It's ridiculous. It's absurd, my opinion it's ridiculous. How much more do you need for I.D.?" Roger said.
Governor Martinez tried in previous legislative sessions to pass a law taking licenses out of the hands of those here illegally. Passing such a law would have New Mexico in compliance. But there's no way that it can happen before the new rule goes into effect on January 15. Read more

From the American Thinker - by Rick Moran - Hey! It's 2012 people. It's December of 2012 and you know what that means. It's the end of the world, I tell ya. Mark your calendars; December 21 will either be the party day of the milenium or...the party day of all time. Whatever happens, there has rarely been a better excuse to break out your party hats and howl at the moon - at least until it disappears.
The always helpful (though not always accurate) Wikipedia has some background on the so-called "Mayan Apocalypse." Believe me, after that election debacle in November, we could use a little excitement in our lives. And what better way to forget about the election than to worry about the earth's magnetic polls flipping, or the earth passing close to a black hole, or our planet exploding? Read more

Members of the Mescalero Apache tribe
are scheduled to receive checks of $1,500 each from a $32.8 million windfall
received through federal settlement.

The Albuquerque Journal reports that
Tribal Council decided to issue the checks next week after getting pressured by
community members to split up the entire $32.8 million settlement. The
remaining $10 million is expected to be set aside to pay tribal members
dividends next year.

The Mescalero Apache's windfall of nearly $33 million came
from an agreement, announced by the Interior Department in early April, to pay
more than $1 billion to 41 tribes across the country to settle dozens of
lawsuits over the mismanagement of funds and natural resources held in trust by
the federal government for the benefit of tribes.

Testimonies from the workers who
helped create the world's first atomic bomb have been posted on a new
website.

The "Voices of the Manhattan Project" website (http://manhattanprojectvoices.org)
is the first step in what organizers say will create a central repository for
the oral histories surrounding the once mysterious World War II-era project.

Developed
by the Los Alamos Historical Society and the Washington, D.C.-based Atomic
Heritage Foundation, the website is an attempt to organize oral histories that
for years have been scattered across the country and hard for the public to
access.

The top-secret Manhattan Project was a mission to develop the atomic
bomb involving Los Alamos, N.M.

Townhall - COP 18 started this week in Doha, Qatar, where climate campaigners will, again, try to get governments to commit to a $100-billion-per-year “Climate Fund” to redistribute wealth from the West to the rest—though $100 billion is already being considered “inadequate.” The Climate Fund “is designed to transfer wealth from the developed world to the developing world to fund mitigation and adaptation to climate change.”

COP 18 is the latest in high-level, international meetings designed to continue progress on a comprehensive agreement to address global climate change. (COP stands for Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.)

Considering that alarmists believe that carbon emissions from coal and oil-based energy is the primary driver of climate change—rather than natural causes, it is ironic that COP 18 is being held in Doha, in the heart of the OPEC region. Reports claim that Qatar has some of the “highest emissions per capita” and has barely been involved in climate negotiations. Some have even said: “having one of the OPEC leaders in charge of climate talks is like asking Dracula to look after a blood bank.” Read more News New Mexico

PNM Resources Inc. plans to move
ahead with the installation of federally required pollution controls at a
coal-fired power plant in northwestern New
Mexico that serves more than 2 million customers in
the Southwest.

A stay granted by federal regulators so parties could evaluate
alternatives for the San Juan Generating Station expired with no agreement on
an alternative.

The federal plan calls for selective catalytic reduction on
each of San Juan's
four coal-fired units.

The 1,800-megawatt plant is New Mexico's
single largest source of electricity, and also provides power to customers in California, Arizona and Utah.

Researchers at New MexicoStateUniversity are sharing in
a $2.4 million grant that will be used to market the benefits of pecans.

The
researchers are working with colleagues at the University of Georgia
and Texas A&M.

Their focus is helping pecan growers stay competitive by
capitalizing on the crop's nutritional benefits. They'll also be looking for
ways to improve production efficiency and profitability.

Georgia leads the nation in pecan production,
followed by New Mexico and Texas. Federal agricultural statistics show New Mexico's growers
produced about 61 million pounds of pecans last year. The state's crop was
valued at more than $162 million.

New
Mexico gas and electric utilities are going to be required to have
plans in place for severe weather-related crises.

The Public
Regulation Commission's recent 5-0 vote mandates state-regulated utilities be
better prepared. The new guidelines mean utilities must
"explicitly" take into account issues such as backup capabilities and
alternate fuel-delivery systems.

The rules stem from recommendations made in a
PRC report on the impact of a deep freeze in February 2011. The freeze caused
natural gas outages and loss of service for several days for at least 28,000
customers.

A New Mexico Gas Co. spokeswoman says the utility supports the new
provisions.

The authors behind a proposed bill to
legalize marijuana possession in New
Mexico plan to revise their pitch.

The New
Mexico Drug Policy Alliance is not giving up on their proposal, which was not
endorsed by a legislative committee last week.

Director Emily Kaltenbach says
the drug-law reform group will spend the next month considering how to utilize
lawmakers' suggestions.

The bill would allow adults to have up to an ounce of
marijuana without penalty. Having 8 ounces would incur fines but no criminal
charges. Current state law deems possession of up to 8 ounces a misdemeanor.